Band Camp

Today I had a new experience. I got to help out with Jordan School District’s Band Camp. I’d say “camp” is kind of a loose term. It’s only 2 hours on two different days. Today was the first day. I got to teach almost 20 kids (3rd to 6th grade) the basics of song writing. These were the advanced level kids, and of course they all play a string instrument – the violin, viola, or cello. I told them my instrument of choice was the piano, but the songwriting skills I would be teaching them would be the same for all.
I taught the kids about key signatures, and time signatures. I had them come up and write notes and sharps on the board. We created our own little song.
We talked a little bit about melodies and about how, like talking, there are basic rhythms, and melodies that just “work” better than others. I know some were really excited and others that couldn’t get past trying to draw a “treble clef”. I’m excited to see how they did on their homework tomorrow. I told them to experiment with writing 4 measure melodies  in the key of D (2 sharps).
To help them with this assignment I filled in a note for each of their 4 measures. The first note was a ‘D’. In the second measure, the last note had to be an ‘A’. The third measure begins on an ‘A’, and the 4th and final measure ends with a ‘D’. They were also encouraged to not go more complicated than 8th notes, since they will be trying to play through these melodies as a group tomorrow.
I’ll let you know how it goes. It’s a great exercise to see what works and what doesn’t. Tomorrow we’ll take these simple melodies and expand them into a song form- for example (A,A,B,A) and (A,B,A).
It’s been a fun experience!
(and yes, you’re welcome to try it too!)